The present invention relates generally to the field of tactile signaling systems, and more particularly to a haptic analytic interface for determining and generating preflex stimulation.
A haptic analytic interface is a system that interfaces with a haptic device enabling a human to interact with a computer through bodily sensations and movements. Haptics refers to a type of human-computer interaction technology that encompasses tactile feedback or other bodily sensations to perform actions or processes on a computing device.
Muscle spindles are sensory receptors within a muscle that primarily detect changes in the length of the muscle. They convey length information to the central nervous system via sensory neurons. The brain can process this information to determine the position of body parts. The responses of muscle spindles to changes in length also play an important role in regulating the contraction of muscles, by activating motor neurons via the stretch reflex to resist muscle stretch. Muscle spindles are embedded in extrafusal muscle fibers. Preflexes are the zero-delay, intrinsic response of a neuromusculoskeletal system to perturbation that auto-stabilize movements using the nonlinear visco-elastic properties of muscles when they contract.
Proprioception is the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. In humans, it may be provided by proprioreceptors (muscle spindles) in skeletal striated muscles. The initiation of proprioception is the activation of a proprioreceptor in the periphery. The proprioceptive sense is believed to be composed of information from sensory neurons located in the inner ear (motion and orientation) and in the stretch receptors located in the muscles and the joint-supporting ligaments (stance). Proprioreceptors, sometimes known as adequate stimuli receptors, are sensory receptors that receives stimuli from within the body, especially in response to position and movement.